Tony Connelly Profile picture
Sep 16, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Did @BorisJohnson give himself a ladder to climb down when responding to @hilarybennmp's question if he believes the EU is acting in bad faith?

Johnson replies: "It is always possible that I am mistaken [that the EU is acting in bad faith].
2/ "Perhaps they will prove my suspicions wrong, and perhaps they will agree in the Joint Committee to withdraw some of the extreme suggestions that I've heard and all will be well.
3/ "But until such time I prefer to have protections guarantee the integrity of this country and protect against the potential rupture of the United Kingdom..."
4/ Note that the Working Paper circulated by the European Commission to member states today (see earlier thread) states: "Michel Barnier clearly stated that the EU is *not* refusing to list the UK as a third country for
food imports."
5/ The Commission and Member states have believed the hold up over the "listing of the UK" for food imports provided Johnson with what was described as an "insane" smokescreen to retroactively justify the Internal Market Bill, which breaches the Protocol
6/ If the Commission spells out in the Joint Committee that it is not threatening, a food blockade of NI, and never has, will that permit a de-escalation?
7/ The Joint Committee was due to meet on September 25, although there is a belief that will have to be postponed until the EU's deadline for the offending elements of the Internal Mkt Bill be withdrawn (ie, end of September)

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Tony Connelly

Tony Connelly Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @tconnellyRTE

Nov 8, 2023
Doctors Without Borders @MSF has described a catastrophic situation at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, with Israeli defence forces now less than one kilometre away, according to the latest reports.
2/ MSF says between 40,000 to 60,000 civilians are sheltering at the hospital, while doctors treating hundreds of injured patients - mostly children - are facing a horrific shortage of basic medical needs, with fuel running out.
3/ “It's difficult to put into words,” Faris Al-Jawad, Communications Manager for Palestine MSF told @rtenews. “Saying it's deteriorated or has become catastrophic is an understatement. It's been catastrophic [for some time]. The healthcare system has collapsed.”
Read 15 tweets
Oct 27, 2023
Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar has said he understood the arguments about a super majority being needed in the event of a referenum on a united Ireland, and said “50pc plus 1” would not be a desirable outcome.
2/ He said: “We would much rather see a convincing majority for unification, if and when a border poll comes.”

However, he said it would be difficult to sustain that situation if a persistent numerical majority rejected the current status quo.
3/ He was speaking in response to Northern Ireland Office minister @SteveBakerHW's remarks earlier this week that a border poll should require a super majority on both sides of the border.
Read 11 tweets
Oct 23, 2023
NEW: EU Commission president @vonderleyen has written to staff saying she was “ready to engage, and to listen to your concerns” on the Middle East following a letter signed by over 800 Commission officials last week protesting against her allegedly unequivocal support for Israel.
2/ In a letter circulated internally, seen by @rtenews, Ms von der Leyen said the events unfolding in the Middle East were “a deep source of sorrow and concern for all of us.”
3/ Without referring to last week’s letter, the Commission president said she recognised that many staff members were affected by the crisis “on a personal level.”
Read 15 tweets
Jun 1, 2023
NEW: Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar has asked British prime minister @RishiSunak to keep the Irish government informed of any new package of measures for Northern Ireland which are designed to reassure the DUP about the North’s place in the United Kingdom.
2/ Speaking following a bilateral meeting with Mr Sunak at a summit of European leaders in Moldova, Mr Varadkar said: “What is publicly known at this stage is that the DUP is seeking some assurances from the British government about their place in the UK.
3/ “That's really a matter between the DUP and the UK Government.

“But we've said we would just like to be aware of that so that we're not caught off guard or by surprise, and that there's nothing that would concern us in terms of the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement.
Read 10 tweets
Jun 1, 2023
NEW: The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said Ireland will give “deep consideration” to joining an EU PESCO mission on protecting undersea data cables in light of suspicions that Russian vessels have been mapping cables off the Irish atlantic coast.
2/ Arriving at the European Political Community summit in Moldova, Mr Varakdar said: “We will certainly consider that. We will give it deep consideration, because we are an island nation, our seas are seven times greater than our land area
3/ "...and going through those seas are a lot of really important infrastructure [and] communications cables that connect Ireland to the world and Europe to North America.”
Read 16 tweets
Mar 28, 2023
NEW: The EU has said that new light touch arrangements for the movement of retail food consignments from GB to Northern Ireland will not be fully implemented until SPS inspection facilities at Northern Ireland ports have been completed and audited.
2/ @VanGoethemB, a senior European Commission veterinary official, told the European Parliament that officials from the EU veterinary office in Grange, Co Meath will carry out an audit of the facilities before the new system under the Windsor Framework becomes fully operational.
3/ Bernard van Goethem told MEPs that the process to change EU law through so-called “implementing acts” to facilitate the arrangements was conditional on the completion of agrifood inspection at four Northern Ireland ports.
Read 15 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(